WHATS YOUR FINAL WISH?

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A six-day hospital stay was all it took for Andrew Smith to start contemplating his own mortality. Andrew, who had also recently lost an Uncle, realized how ill-prepared he was if his passing were to come sooner than anticipated.

Did his family know if he wanted to be buried or cremated? What kind of music did he want played at his celebration of life? What should happen to his Facebook account? The questions kept coming.

“I just wanted to make sure that I had that information documented,” said Andrew. “And then I thought, there’s a lot of people in the same situation as me and if I can create a website to help people out, that would be great. That’s why I created Final Wish.”

Final Wish launched in April of 2016. It provides a place for users to share their end of life wishes in a comfortable and safe fashion, and ultimately it hopes to foster better connections between loved ones. Members make a variety of choices including how they want to be remembered on social media, and who they want to take care of their pets after their passing. They can even prepare slideshows with photos and music that they want played at their celebration of life.

Final Wish isn’t meant to replace a will though. “This is more for the softer stuff. We’re trying to help relieve stress, let people grieve at their own point in time and provide a place for people to be prepared,” said Smith.

Final Wish is helping to empower people. It allows members to play a significant role in their own end of life decisions, and to share stories from their life with future generations. Members are able to sign in and make changes whenever they want. After they pass, personally chosen confidants (up to five) can access the information by logging in on any computer or mobile device. A confidant cannot edit the final wishes or multimedia only view and share them at the time of the member’s passing.

Signing up for Final Wish is free and very quick to do. New members can then take their time creating a profile with their list of final wishes. Extra features like slideshows, photo galleries, and autobiographies can be created and stored for $25 a year.

Understanding that privacy and security are important to its members, Final Wish has taken important steps. They have encrypted all member data, and they process financial transactions through Stripe. The website itself is hosted and secured with Amazon Web Services and is SSL Secure.

Losing someone is never easy, but having this information available will offer some relief. Final Wish helps bring peace of mind to their members and their loved ones at a time they will need it the most.